24. Then the end will come. Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers. Then he will give the kingdom to God the Father.
25. Christ must rule until God puts all enemies under his control.
26. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.
27. As the Scriptures say, “God put everything under his control.” When it says that “everything” is put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself. God is the one putting everything under Christ’s control.
28. After everything has been put under Christ, then the Son himself will be put under God. God is the one who put everything under Christ. And Christ will be put under God so that God will be the complete ruler over everything.
29. If no one will ever be raised from death, then what will the people do who are baptized for those who have died? If the dead are never raised, then why are people baptized for them?
30. And what about us? Why do we put ourselves in danger every hour?
31. I face death every day. That is true, brothers and sisters, just as it is true that I am proud of what you are because of Christ Jesus our Lord.
32. I fought wild animals in Ephesus. If I did that only for human reasons, then I have gained nothing. If we are not raised from death, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we die.”
33. Don’t be fooled: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.”
34. Come back to your right way of thinking and stop sinning. Some of you don’t know God. I say this to shame you.
35. But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?”
36. These are stupid questions. When you plant something, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow.
37. And when you plant something, what you plant does not have the same “body” that it will have later. What you plant is only a seed, maybe wheat or something else.
38. But God gives it the body that he has planned for it, and he gives each kind of seed its own body.
39. All things made of flesh are not the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds have another, and fish have yet another kind.